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Benzos like valium and Xanax may lengthen sleep but they produce a poorer quality of sleep. With regular use they create a tolerance. Getting off them is brutal and it causes adaptive changes to the medication.

Consider sedating antidepressants or other safer alternatives. There is a lot of information on benzo withdrawal- it is a nightmare.

It is strange how different everyone is. Personally I've dropped from a daily dose of Xanax for years with no issues, yet I have horrific results with antidepressants! Effexor was the absolute worst for me, though all antidepressants caused me to be far more tired than usual (and that's saying something eh ? Lol )

Tried weaning down on Effexor for months and months but dr finally advised 3 week leave to get past the fatigue and electrical shock feelings to finally stop the medica. Tried lexapro, Zoloft, trazadone and a few I've forgotten.

I now tell drs to not give me ANY serotonin meds.

I certainly do agree that ANY med should be considered seriously before starting.

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It's the only sleep med that helped with sleep without a medicinal hang over.

I love it. 2 mg works great for me.

Do you take it every or almost every night? withdrawal from regular benzo use does not kick in right away. You have to discontinue it slowly over a long period of time. And it is not a physical withdrawal with craving for it. It just leaves the brain in a hyper-excitable state until the GABA receptors recover from use. Be very careful. There are safer alternatives to sleep that do not cause physical dependence.

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Benzos are just fine until you try to get off them. I had a terrible experience - while others have not. There are safer alternatives.

I currently take Trazadone, which is a sedating Antidepressant for sleep. Others have not cared for it. There are other options. Just be careful with regular Xanax use. You will build up a tolerance over time and need higher doses to achieve the same effect. The higher the dose and the longer you are on it, the longer and harder it will become to discontinue and recover from.

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The Xanax I'm on gave me great sleep at first, but it no longer really helps. It's like my body is conditioned to make me feel like crap, so it adapts around any treatment I take in order to do so.

Here is the thing with using Benzos for sleep. They increase the length of sleep while they reduce the quality of the sleep.

When I was first prescribed one, I was so grateful. I was experiencing such interrupted sleep that just sleeping through the night was like a miracle.

But I still felt like *&%$ during the day. And I had to move up to higher doses to achieve the same effect.

Benzos are intended for short term use. Beyond that, they are pure hell to discontinue- really- hell. Rebound REM, rebound insomnia, rebound anxiety, rebound depression. Whatever you were on it for will return ten fold after long term use is discontinued.